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>> Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Behold! The cover of my new middle grade novel, Fantasy Baseball, due out in March 2011. (Click on the picture to see it a bit larger.) The artwork is done by the fabulous Greg Call, who also did the covers for Peter and the Starcatchers, Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains, and many more. Advanced Reader Copy giveaway coming soon!

EDIT: I suppose I ought to say what this book is about, if I can. Here's the elevator pitch I've been working on for it:

Fantasy Baseball is the story of sixth grader Alex Metcalf, who must figure out if he himself is real when he wakes up in a fantasy world filled with famous characters from children's literature like Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz and Toad from The Wind in the Willows, all of whom are playing in a huge baseball tournament.

Heh. Yeah. There was great debate about calling it "Fantasy Baseball." Obviously the title is a play off the game fantasy baseball, wherein you draft real players from the major leagues and accumulate season-long stats. This story has a similar "crazy team" feel, but uses characters from classic children's books instead...it's a different kind of beast entirely. We figured, ultimately, that the cover would tell readers it wasn't their father's fantasy baseball...

And Rebecca, I'm a font nerd too. I loved what he did with the word Fantasy. It's all hand done. THe only computer generated font on the front cover is my name. I was so happy to see the lettering done like that! It says so much about the flavor and energy I tried to bring to the prose inside.

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